Man gets up to 40 years for baseball bat slaying

An Allentown man will spend up to four decades in state prison for beating the mother of his child to death with a baseball bat.

Alfredo Reyes Ortiz, 43, was sentenced Monday to serve 20 to 40 years behind bars for killing 39-year-old Francesca Hazel Isley in his Allentown home in July 2009. It was the maximum sentence Lehigh County Judge Kelly L. Banach could have imposed under Ortiz's plea.

Ortiz pleaded guilty in October to third-degree murder. Authorities say he beat Isley with a wooden baseball bat, splitting it into several pieces, and then thrust one piece down her throat.

"You are a dangerous man, Mr. Ortiz, and you need to be locked away for as long as the law permits," Banach told the shackled defendant.

During Monday's hearing, four of Isley's children told Ortiz his actions created a void that can never be filled. Ortiz and Isley had one child together, a 10-year-old son who has cancer and is living with a foster family. Family members said not having his mother or father around to help him with his battle has torn the boy apart.

"She wasn't just a statistic or a story in the newspaper; she was somebody's mom," Banach said.

Ortiz offered what Banach considered a half-hearted apology.

"I am very sorry," Ortiz said. "Her death is something I have to live with."

According to First Assistant District Attorney Steven Luksa:

Police were called to Ortiz's 384 Allen St. home around 11 a.m. July 11, 2009, for a report of a domestic assault. They arrived and found Isley alone, lying face down in a pool of blood. Later, police found a trash bag five houses down with bloody clothes and a broken baseball bat. Fingerprints on the trash bag matched Ortiz's.

Ortiz and Isley had an on-and-off relationship that Luksa said was "very volatile."

Police learned Ortiz and Isley had a fight two days before the murder and Ortiz left a threatening message on her cell phone, saying he was going to "take down everyone you care about one by one."

The night before police discovered Isley's body, a man bought cocaine from Isley and Ortiz, and Isley accidentally left her phone in that man's car, according to testimony at a preliminary hearing in December 2009. Police ended up recovering the phone with the threatening message on it.